Menopause Health Center

Age, Bone Mass Predict Fracture Risk

New Targets for Prevention

"This is a big study with lots of patients that can give us guidance," says Eric Ruderman, MD, an associate professor of medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago.

"Ultimately, osteoporosis is not the problem -- fractures are the problem. And to the extent that this gives us other targets for fracture prevention, it's helpful," Ruderman tells WebMD.

"It's a wake-up call," he says. "We need to make sure women are getting their calcium and vitamin D [and] doing weight-bearing exercises."

The bottom line is that "we need to make sure that if there are risk factors that can be modified, they are being modified," says Ruderman.